The VMWare ESX Server does not ship with an easy method of exporting virtual machines (VMs) with snapshots. However, VMWare does provide a free, stand-alone tool that will export your ESX VMs with snapshots. The VMWare vCenter Converter is available from the download.VMWare.com website. The converter application converts the virrtual machine files into backup VMs, or the converter will convert the VMDK files into other file types, such as one network appliance file with the OVF file extension. The exported OVF file is a snapshot of the VM. Exporting the VM to an OVF file compacts the virtual hard drives. The OVF file can then be mounted as a network share. Writer Bio
